Minority Firms Put In Awards Spotlight

Business Center Honors Minorities

Carole and Victor Gellineau tapped their credit cards, refinanced their house mortgage and borrowed from friends and family to launch a home-based greeting card business in 1985.

Their sales were a meager $3,000 that first year, coming mostly from family, friends and some customers at craft shows.

But last year, Carole Joy Creations Inc. marketed 160 items in 800 stores and sales soared to more than $600,000.

The Danbury-based company was one of six minority-owned Connecticut businesses honored Wednesday by The Connecticut Minority Business Development Center for growth in the past five years.

The center is a private agency that uses federal money to encourage minority entrepreneurs to start their own businesses, hire employees and thus create much-needed jobs in the state.

Wednesday's awards ceremony at the state Legislative Office Building showcased some of the most successful minority-owned businesses in the state last year as chosen by the center. The ceremony is part of this week's national celebration of Minority Enterprise Development Week.

Organizers say the awards demonstrate that small and medium-sized businesses operated by minority owners can be successful.

Lenders often are unwilling to make loans to minority owners of small businesses because, in the past, there had been a high failure rate among such businesses, said Elaine T. Williams, the center's executive director.

Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., one of the keynote speakers Wednesday, acknowledged the difficulties faced by minority entrepreneurs who want to either start or expand their businesses. He highlighted the inability to secure loans.

Weicker urged minority business owners to tap into a new state program that has set aside $200 million to back up $1 billion in bank loans to small and medium-sized businesses in general.

The pool is being used to issue loan guarantees on loans to

small and mid-sized businesses that otherwise might not get credit.

"I want to assure the minority entrepreneurial community that credit will be made available," Weicker told the audience of about 75. "The barriers that have been erected because of who you are shouldn't be there."

Despite his success, Gellineau said he, too, has been rejected for business loans.

"For a business to grow, it needs capital," Gellineau said.

Five other businesses also were honored Tuesday.

J.T. Slocomb Co. of Glastonbury makes aircraft engine parts and had sales last year of more than $10 million. It was ranked 53rd among the top 500 Hispanic Owned Businesses last year.

Maralex Trucking Co. Inc. of Windsor Locks started in 1986 with one truck and two employees. It has grown to 11 trucks and 15 full-time employees, 11 of whom are members of minority groups.

Diversified Technologies of North Haven was incorporated in 1979 as engineering consultants to municipal, state and federal agencies. It began with three employees, and now has 35.

B & T Contractors Inc. of Hartford has been in business 24 years. Its owner, Robert Bolden, began the business with eight bricklayers building sidewalks and chimneys. He later bought out his partners.

Galinski Travel Services of Hartford was purchased in 1976 by Jorge Machado, a native of Columbia, who had extensive background in the travel industry